The Athletics’ season has been defined by injuries, and the outfield has taken its share of hits. Brent Rooker went down early with knee surgery.
Shea Langeliers and Nick Kurtz were later ruled out for the year, and both had represented the A’s in the All-Star Game this summer. Tyler Soderstrom’s hip procedure shut him down as well, though he is expected back for Spring Training.
Even with all of that, the A’s are getting something useful out of a reshuffled group in the outfield.
Henry Bolte has taken over in center field and has settled in nicely. He is not the same defender Denzel Clarke is, but he has handled the job well enough and has become a key part of the new alignment. Bolte is also beginning to look like one of the team’s better bats, and he now serves as the everyday leadoff hitter.
Carlos Cortes got a long look earlier in the year after getting off to a hot start at the plate. His bat cooled for a stretch, which cost him some regular playing time, but he is starting to wake back up. Over the last seven days, he is batting .273.
Lawrence Butler has stayed in right field for the most part, while Zack Gelof has also seen time in a corner spot. Butler opened the season painfully slowly, but the hard contact is there now, and the results are starting to follow. He is batting .375 over the last seven days and .308 over the last 15 days.
For an A’s club trying to piece things together through a brutal injury run, that kind of production matters.
In Other News...
Denzel Clarke Is Giving The A's A Tougher Call To Make
The As system had a busy night across the minors, but the most intriguing development for Oakland was in Las Vegas, where Denzel Clarke kept nudging his name into the conversation with another impactful showing at the plate. In a 10-8 Aviators win over Albuquerque, the outfielder helped supply some offense and continued to build the kind of case that makes roster decisions harder as the season moves along.
Clarke is already known for the tools that make him stand out, and nights like this only sharpen the question of how soon Oakland wants to test that upside at the next level. With the organization juggling performances from across the farm, his recent run is starting to look less like a brief surge and more like a player forcing the issue. [Read more 🡒]
A's Twins Series Could Test Whether Oakland's Pitching Surge Is Real
A series against Minnesota arrives at a useful moment for the Athletics, who have spent enough of this season trying to sort out their rotation that any glimpse of stability feels significant. The matchup cards point to a collection of arms on both sides who have had their share of uneven results, with Jeffrey Springs and Gage Jump trying to build on recent work while Zebby Matthews, Taj Bradley and Connor Prielipp add their own layers of uncertainty to a weekend that could swing on who throws first-pitch strikes and who can keep the damage contained.
JT Ginn gives Oakland the cleanest path to feeling better about where its pitching stands, and that alone makes this set worth watching beyond the box score. If the A's can navigate the rest of the rotation innings without getting exposed, it would lend some credibility to the idea that their recent pitching uptick is more than a short-lived bounce, but Minnesota's starters are good enough to make that claim hard to prove in just one series. [Read more 🡒]